September 17, 2009

Eat Your Veggies (Part V)

Photo courtesy of Martha Stewart Living, May 2008

I think my garden is the best I've ever seen! I might be a little biased (and naive), but I can't believe how many beautiful vegetables I've been able to grow. It's probably beginner's luck, which will make me very sad when I try and recreate the same goodness next summer, but I'll definitely give it a whirl in 2010. Here's a picture of what I was able to glean just one day last week:


This is only a glimpse of what has been going on. Let's see . . . throughout the summer we've gotten 5 or 6 cucumbers, 30 something carrots, 3 or so bags of lettuce, 5 or so acorn squash, 2 watermelons, 5 or so tomatoes, gobs of cherry tomatoes, 2 beautiful green peppers, lots of green beans and 2 pumpkins that will be ready just in time for carving. It's been so fun!

The only things that haven't been particularly successful are the peppers. I have two green pepper plants, one yellow and one red. Out of all four plants we have only had 2 green peppers (which were beautiful!) and a yellow pepper-that hasn't turned color yet.

Next year I think we'll swap out the cucumbers for zucchini (since it's so yummy on the grill and I can use it in bread or cake), and I probably won't plant many carrots, if any. I don't have anything against carrots, but they have been hard to pull out of the ground And, it's kind of hard to plant them without planting thousands. What if I don't want thousands? What if I only want 10, can I have just 10? Okay, okay, I'll stop this little rant on carrots. I just won't plant them next year, that's all.

Things I have loved, though, are the tomatoes (especially the cherry tomatoes), the squash, the peppers (of the ones we've gotten), and the pumpkins. And, of course, I'm looking forward to seeing how the watermelons turn out too. They might make the list.

September 15, 2009

A New Bag

Wow. It's been awhile since I've been here on this blog. I swear I've been working on things, but maybe I just haven't completed much recently. I'm very excited about the most recent project. This one has been in my head for awhile, and it turned out just exactly as I wanted it to.

It's a new bag that is perfect for Fall . . .



I got the idea of the bag here. I've linked to her blog before - it's so inspirational for me. I love the style of the bag, and especially the fabric. Shortly after seeing it I went online and bought a yard of it - it's Heather Bailey's Pop Garden Rose Bouquet - hoping to make my own. The sad things is, I couldn't bring myself to pay $12 for the Amy Butler pattern. I'm so cheap it's embarrassing. So, instead of shelling out, you know, a whole $12 I found a free tutorial online for a bag that is similar in style and maybe a little more practical in terms of size.


The directions were a little wonky, especially when it came to the pleats and the pocket (which I never could really figure out and omitted completely), but overall it worked well.


The first time around I completely screwed up the handles, and I didn't realize it until I was done! So annoying! So, I did just about as much seam ripping as I did sewing on this bag.

Thankfully, I feel like it was worth it (I definitely debated for awhile before I went back in and fixed it).


Anyway, like I said, overall it worked well. So, I'll definitely be making more.

Marie, take note of the earrings I'm wearing. They're so cute, don't you think? Well, I do.